Who Killed The Electric Car?

I finally saw that documentary and was surprised by it. I was expecting a Michael Mooreesque far left, paranoid movie that proposed Bush and Cheney went to the electric car factory in the middle of the night and blew the place up. But instead it was a fairly down the middle portrait of what happened.

The story goes something like this: GM came out with an electric car in the mid-90s. This was done in order to meet the California law that mandated any manufacturer who sold cars in the state had to have a certain % of their sales in the form of 0 emission vehicles by the 2000s. But GM was also at the same time, lobbying hard against that law. The law was thrown out and with it went GM's electric car program as well. GM took back all the cars it had leased (didn't sell any) and destroyed them all. GM contends that this was because there was no interest in the car. The movie contends there was interest but GM didn't try to capitalize on it and even acted to sabotage its own products. It's a he said, she said kind of movie, presented I think fairly, even with the obvious skewing of the movie maker.

The movie claimed that the cost of electricity to run the car would be the equivalent of $0.60 a gallon. They never said exactly how that was calculated. But even if that number were doubled or tripled, it would still rock right about now. So there is something odd about GM getting rid of such a car. It really doesn't make any sense and does raise some interesting questions.

See for yourself.